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Agency decision-making by enhancing EPA's ability to identify, quantify, and
value the ecological benefits of existing and proposed policies” (EPA 2006b, p.
XV). The agency has devoted resources to enhancing the science of ecologic-
service valuation through the STAR grants program and ORD's ecosystem-
services research program. The 2009 report by EPA SAB concluded that a “gap
exists between the need to understand and protect ecologic systems and services
and EPA's ability to address this need” (EPA SAB 2009, p.8). The report pro-
vides recommendations for enhanced research on “how an integrated and ex-
panded approach to ecologic valuation can help the agency describe and meas-
ure the value of protecting ecologic systems and services, thus better meeting its
overall mission” (EPA SAB 2009, p.8).
Synthesis Research
Scientific progress has always depended on synthesis of disparate data,
concepts, and theories (Carpenter et al. 2009). The combined forces of increas-
ing research specialization, an explosion of scientific information, and growing
demand for solutions to pressing environmental problems have made scientific
synthesis more challenging and more urgent than ever before. In recent years,
the National Science Foundation and other agencies have invested considerable
funds in synthesis research centers. At least 19 such centers have now been es-
tablished in the United States and abroad. They have demonstrated the power
and cost effectiveness of bringing together multidisciplinary collaborative
groups to integrate and analyze data to generate new scientific knowledge that
has increased generality, parsimony, applicability, and empirical soundness
(Hampton and Parker 2011). The impact of well-designed synthesis efforts ex-
tends beyond the life of the projects themselves. Projects spin off new and unex-
pected collaborative research, and researchers tend to expand the multidiscipli-
nary breadth of their research (Hampton and Parker 2011). Several mechanisms
that increase the creative productivity of multidisciplinary synthesis research
have been identified, notably open, competitive calls for projects; face-to-face
interactions at a neutral facility free of distractions; and multiple working group
meetings that enable technology and analytic support, institutional diversity,
diversity of career stages, inclusion of postdoctoral fellows, and moderately
large group size (Hackett et al. 2008; Hampton and Parker 2011).
EPA often produces useful synthesis reports that summarize the state of
knowledge on a topic, but this is not a substitute for synthesis
research
. The
agency could make more use of deliberately designed synthesis research activi-
ties to promote multidisciplinary collaborations and accelerate progress toward
integrated sustainability science. One example is the recent creation by the US
Geological Survey of the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
(The Powell Center 2012). EPA could also pursue opportunities with synthesis
centers, such as the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
(NCEAS 2012) and the newly established Socio-Environmental Synthesis Cen-
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